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Bird flu found in 2 more countries

BRUSSELS — The spread of the H5N1 strain of bird flu into Hungary and Croatia was confirmed Tuesday, as EU officials considered vaccinating millions of birds in France and the Netherlands.

Germany reported 22 more cases of bird flu on the northern island of Rügen, raising the total there to 103.

In India, where officials were scrambling to contain a major outbreak in poultry, hundreds of people turned up for screening at medical camps in areas where bird flu had been reported.

At least 15 nations have reported outbreaks in birds this month, an indication that the virus, which has killed more than 90 people, is spreading faster.

Migratory birds are thought to be at least one transporter of the disease.

More than 30 countries have reported cases since 2003. Seven have recorded human infections.

Hungary said Tuesday that tests had showed the virus in three dead swans found last week.

Croatia confirmed that H5N1 had been found in a dead swan on an island in the Adriatic Sea.

Among nations in the European Union,

Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, France and Slovenia also are grappling with H5N1 in wild birds, the European Commission said Tuesday.

No nations in the Union have reported bird flu in commercial stocks or in humans.

Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed its first cases of bird flu on Monday, while Malaysia said the H5N1 virushad killed chickens near the capital.

In Brussels, EU animal health experts met to consider requests from France and the Netherlands, among Europe's biggest poultry producers, to be allowed to vaccinate millions of birds against avian influenza.

"The commission is considering plans that were submitted last night by the French and Dutch authorities," a European Commission official told reporters.

"Every country that wants to do preventive vaccination has to submit a plan, explaining the controls that they will apply to distinguish between vaccinated and nonvaccinated animals," he said.

TheWorld Organization for Animal Health, which is based in Paris, announcedthat the top veterinary officers ofcountries across Europe would meet in the French capital next week to draw up a common strategy for combating the disease in Europe.

Also attending will be veterinary officers from Azerbaijan, Iran and Syria and a ministry level representative from Kuwait.

EU nations are under orders to keep poultry indoors to prevent contact with

migratory birds.

In London, the ravens at the Tower of London were taken

inside to protect them from bird flu. Legend has it that if the ravens leave the Tower, where the Crown Jewels are stored, the kingdom will fall.

The World Health Organization said that while no human cases of bird flu had been found in India, Egypt or Nigeriatransmission risks remained as long as the virus was present in the three countries.

"There is really no time frame. As long as the virus is circulating it could jump into humans," a spokesman Dick Thompson told a press briefing in Geneva.

The fear is that H5N1 could eventually mutate into a form that can pass easily from human to human.

In India, 10 people have been quarantined as officials scramble to contain a major outbreakin poultry.

Thousands of people have been tested for infection.

Malaysia stepped up its defenses

Tuesday, killing poultry and sending health officials to track any human infections, after it reported its first case of the virus in more than a year.

Zambia allocated $4,000 to the fight, a sum critics that derided as far too small to have any effect.

The fresh case of bird flu affected the prices of shares in poultry farms and prompted Singapore, Malaysia's neighbor, to suspend imports from the central Malaysian state of Selangor.

Officials said the virus killed 40 chickens inSelangorlast week.

In Europe, officials urged people to continue to eat poultry. But with demand falling, poultry farmers in Greece warned that they could soon be forced out of business.

The WHO has said that thoroughly cooked poultry meat and eggs are safe to eat, but that assurance has failed to calm consumers. $@